Killer At Center Of Early Release Debate Gets 53 Years

NEW HAVEN — A man at the center of a debate over a state program that allows inmates to earn credit toward early release was sentenced to 53 years in prison Friday for killing a 70-year-old man in a Meriden convenience store robbery.

Frankie Resto was released from prison in April 2012. Two months later, he shot and killed Ibrahim Ghazal. Resto was released after earning 199 days of early-release credits while serving a sentence for two armed robberies.

Superior Court Judge Patrick Clifford handed down the sentence. Resto, who faced up to 80 years in prison, had pleaded guilty to murder and first-degree robbery. The 53-year sentence was on the murder charge. A 20-year robbery sentence will run concurrently.

Before the sentence was imposed, the victim's daughter, Mervat Ghazal, read a statement to the court written by her mother, Sudquieh Ghazal, who sat in the courtroom gallery, wiping tears from her eyes at times.

In the statement, the wife described how her husband had always wanted to come to America from Jordan — and the family did so in 1989. After more than 23 years, the family saved more than $100,000 to invest in a convenience store on East Main Street in Meriden — and the victim planted American flags all around it, having achieved his American dream.

Just three weeks later, Resto walked into the store and took Ibrahim Ghazal's life.

"We have received a death sentence of our own," the wife said in words read by her daughter, "Each one of us has died in a small way. ... We ask the court remember this sentence we have suffered as you consider the sentence you will impose."

Resto sat with his handcuffed wrists at his waist, apparently listening intently, fixing his glasses at least once. At times, he seemed to purse his lips.

The victim's widow referred to Resto by his inmate number, not his name. She noted that Resto pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine, and did not admit what he had done and therefore had little hope of reforming. She asked the judge to give the family justice and to provide the public with protection from a repeat offender.

"Prisoner 283901 should be sentenced to a life in prison without the possibility of another Early Release," the daughter read, telling the judge in her own loud and emphatic words, "That's what I pray for every night before I go to bed," before continuing to read, "parole or probation," the daughter read. "Any sentence short of that is not just."

Later, her brother, Fapyo Ghazal, 40, of Cromwell, stood before the judge, visibly upset. Speaking after his sister read their mother's statement, Fapyo Ghazal glared to his left toward Resto, who adjusted his glasses.

"He shot him directly in his heart for no reason, and he knows what I'm talking about," Fapyo Ghazal said.

He said that his 7-year-old daughter asks why her grandfather was killed.

"Your Honor, how can we explain this?" he asked.

He said that Resto's family can visit him in prison.

"But my dad, where is he now? He's under the ground," Fapyo Ghazal said.

Defense attorney Glenn Conway said that his client was a troubled person who had a difficult upbringing and made a few suicide attempts.

Resto said, "I feel for the family, you know what I mean? It was an accident."

"I'm willing to deal with whatever comes ... the Almighty knows it was an accident. Everyone else is basically irrelevant. All that killer stuff..."

The victim's wife wiped tears from her eyes in the gallery.

The judge noted that the victim had been a contributor to society, "quite the polar opposite of Mr. Resto," who was described as a heroin addict.

He called the surveillance video of the crime "chilling" and said he did not believe Resto's claim that the shooting was an accident.

"The defendant appeared to calmly take the money and shoot him right in the chest," Clifford said.

He said that Resto apparently has "no moral compass" and as a result committed a "random act of evil."

Critics say the early-release program is bad policy that jeopardizes public safety, and they are pushing for its repeal. Some lawmakers in the legislature's Republican minority have been trying to kill the program since before it was enacted in 2011.

Michael Lawlor, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's undersecretary for criminal justice issues, has said that violent offenders are serving more of their original sentences than they were before the program was established.

Risk-reduction credits are among the myriad of criminal justice policy changes enacted in response to the murders of three members of the Petit family in Cheshire in 2007.

Under the system, inmates may earn up to five days a month off of their sentences for good behavior and participation in educational classes, drug treatment and other programs that aim to reduce recidivism. The credits may be revoked if prisoners misbehave or fail to comply with the program.

"Early release isn't the issue here," Conway said. "Mr. Resto did 90 percent of the sentence he was serving. The issue in this case was substance abuse."

He indicated that no family would be visiting Resto in prison.

"Mr. Resto is at this point left adrift to his own devices," Conway said.